


The Hymn of Persephone

by Rosencrantz



Category: Greek Mythology
Genre: AU Persephone takes Hades captive, F/M, Quests, clever plans not fully thought out, does greek mythology need the incest tag?, dubcon, persephone on top
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-18
Updated: 2019-08-18
Packaged: 2020-09-06 19:01:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,712
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20296417
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rosencrantz/pseuds/Rosencrantz
Summary: Persephone catches a tiger by its tail.





	The Hymn of Persephone

**Author's Note:**

  * For [AceQueenKing](https://archiveofourown.org/users/AceQueenKing/gifts).

> I hope you enjoy! Thank you for the wonderful lists of likes.
> 
> Thank you to Vali for the beta!
> 
> Thank you to Edith Hamilton and that entire chapter about Demeter.

Persephone came into her goddesshood long before she had to reckon with the power of death.

Still known as a sweet maiden, she watched as one of her entourage, a buzzing and kind Melissae, was struck down by Persephone's aunt, the queen of the gods. The nymph had the misfortune to catch Zeus' eye and Hera had retaliated, giving the nymph a sleeping draught from which she never awoke. 

Persephone watched with an intensity previously unknown to the goddess of the gentle blossoms, as a beautiful winged youth knelt down by Melissae and bore her down into the earth. Persephone marked his point of departure with a bright purple flower, beloved to bees. Her nymph's companions would lead her here again.

That night she sat with her mother in Demeter's temple. The sun had set and Persephone had tucked away her blossoms for the night. 

"Mother," she asked, "what happens at the end?"

Demeter did not look away from pouring her ambrosia as she answered, "None of our concern. For it will never touch us."

Persephone had no use for that answer.

So she went to the Heavens above. Perephone was a goddess of Earth and spent little time in the Heavens, but Hera dwelt there. And if Hera had planted these questions to germinate in Persephone's mind, it was only fair she answered them.

Persephone had not forgiven or forgotten her friend’s fate, but she was able to swallow her feelings and ask her question.

Hera, sitting on a throne of adamantine covered in finely cut jewels, answered after a pause.

"Death is that from which there is no return," said Hera. "That is why it is so essential I guard women and infants in the time between nothingness and life. For if disaster strikes, they are lost forever. Death is the final word."

Persephone did not understand this answer.

She went to her aunt Hestia's temple. Her wisest aunt, Hestia kept to herself and caused no strife.

"Aunt," she asked, "what is death?"

Hestia looked up from tending her hearth, considering Persephone's question. Her answer was not immediate. But finally she spoke.

"Death is another realm," Hestia said. "When our time is done in the Earth and even in the Heavens--for no fire burns forever--we enter into that land. Your uncle, my brother Hades, rules it. He guards and keeps dead souls with the aid of his many servants."

"Hades," said Persephone, trying out the name on her tongue. "The boy with the wings?"

Hestia laughed. "That is Thanatos, one of his servants. Thanatos and his many siblings, birthed before even I lived, handle all manner of death. They bear the souls to Tartarus for their final judgement. No, Hades is a man. Stern and grand. It has been so long since I have seen my brother, so tied to his duty he never leaves the Underworld."

"Has anyone ever escaped the Underworld?" asked Persephone. 

Hestia turned over a coal in the hearth. "Yes, and he is known to you," she said.

Persephone leaned forward eagerly.

"You cousin Dionysus rescued his human mother from death with his love," said Hestia. "Semele lives now in the Heavens, among the gods. But they are the only ones to return."

And Persephone did know Dionysus, for he dwelt in the same temple as her mother as a god of Earth.

Persephone liked these answers and could use them.

She began doing so immediately. First she charmed her cousin Hephaestus, admiring the treasures wrought in his volcanic forge. She made a simple request: an unbreakable rope to hold up a swing in her meadow. Hephaestus was more than pleased to make it for the sweet goddess.

She asked her mother about Hades. Demeter paid little heed to the questions. Demeter spoke of how her brothers had drawn lots over rulership. How, during the battles against the Titans, Hades had not fought, but used a magic helmet to slip unnoticed into the Titan camps and steal their weapons. Demeter would become lost in memories of her time before Persephone, the strange events in their father's stomach. Persephone would excuse herself.

And then Persephone descended into the Underworld, through the entrance marked by buzzing bees and the memorial flower she had planted for her Melissae. 

At each obstacle on her path below, she repeated the same request: She sought audience with her uncle.

And each let her pass.

But as she crossed the River Styx, Charon the ferryman warned her that this was a one-way trip. She was now a goddess who had died.

She did not weep. 

Finally, she was presented to Hades in his grim throne room. His throne, adamantine like Hera's, was inlaid with precious metals. 

To her surprise, Hades was not displeasing to look upon. Like her, he had thick curly black hair and an angled nose. His skin was a rich tone despite his underground life, his eyes dark, and his lips full. 

He was visibly surprised by his guest.

"You have doomed me with your mother," he said.

"She will understand," said Persephone. "I wish to sup with you."

"Very well," said Hades. 

At the meal, before Persephone took her first bite of food, she stepped up to her uncle.

"I wish to embrace you," she said.

Hades was surprised yet again, but he allowed her to place her arms upon him.

Quicker than Hades could react, Persephone bound him tightly in her unbreakable rope. And though Hades struggled, he could not break free.

From there, she dragged him to his throne room where she stole his wonderful helmet, and used it to carry away the king of the Underworld to the Earth. As when Hades absconded with the weapons of the Titans, none saw her fleeing with the king. And though he struggled with the strength of a god, she had the strength of a goddess and was his match. 

Her journey to the Underworld, like Semele’s, had become a round trip. 

Persephone took her stolen king to a hidden hollow in her meadow. She bound him to a flower-covered mockery of his throne. 

"There shall be no more death," she informed him, as she tied the final knot. 

"You're being a foolish child," said Hades, pulling futilely at his bonds. "Let me free and I will show you clemency!" 

She gazed into his eyes, her face empty of pity. Then she left to attend to her mother.

Each day she returned to him, to feed him ambrosia and tell him how things had changed.

With Hades gone, his servants were aimless. Souls were no longer claimed, the dead streamed back to the Earth. Even Persephone's lost nymph had returned to her.

Hades pleaded with her, insisting she didn't understand what she'd done.

"I know very well what I've done," said Persephone. She sat beside him now on her visits, on a second flower-covered throne.

She liked to touch Hades' cheek as they talked. She didn't know why he didn't object. But he leaned into her touch as he argued for his freedom.

"Please," he said, looking into her green eyes with his dark ones. "You have to stop this. I will give you anything you wish. Just grant me my freedom before it's too late."

She smiled thinly, then impulsively leaned in and kissed those full lips of his. He kissed back.

"No," she said.

The other gods had noticed the changes on Earth, even from the Heavens. But none dared enter the Underworld to discover why Hades had released his souls.

The gods of Earth had their own concerns. The world was teeming with the living and with the dead.

"I cannot grow the harvest swiftly enough for all these mouths," an exhausted Demeter told Persephone one night, long into Hades' captivity.

Persephone, no longer a maiden from her time with Hades, paid heed to her mother.

"The people starve," said Demeter. “Why has my thrice-damned brother done this? Has he no understanding of his responsibilities?"

Dionysus said much the same, for he had returned to the temple exhausted from his own troubles with the undying world. "I've no wine, no grapes. They have taken it all and not even death can release them from their hungers."

The gods of Earth sorrowed.

Except one.

Persephone feared.

She had the tiger by the tail. She could not free Hades without two consequences: Punishment, and losing Hades. She had come to love him in their time together at her hand. Hades, for his part, pleaded only for the souls now, not himself.

That night, after hearing of her mother’s and cousin’s woes, she did not go to see Hades. Instead she toured the Earth that she had changed.

Everywhere she went, people suffered. She had only known her own wants until now. But she saw children too weakened from hunger to move, the sick in unending pain, the world covered in a mass of people with no relief from each other.

Her heart shattered. She had thought her time with Hades had ended her maidenhood, but it was these sights that had destroyed her innocence.

She returned to Hades.

"You said you'd give me anything I desired," she told him.

"Treasures, servants, anything," said Hades.

"You."

Hades looked startled. Persephone sat astride his lap, gripping his shoulders.

"I desire you as my king," said Persephone.

This, she had realized, was the only way to escape the pain that awaited her. Flee her punishment, and keep Hades for herself.

She kissed him roughly, desperately, then unbound him before he could answer.

His hands embraced her for the first time.

"You have doomed me with your mother," said Hades.

"I doomed myself," said Persephone. "I will never see the sun or the fresh blossom of a flower again."

"You were warned," said Hades, voice soft. "I will be your king."

And they fled to the Underworld before Persephone lost her nerve.

Before the sun set on another day, the psychopomps of Tartarus had collected the escaped souls, and many new ones .

Demeter mourned, but Persephone had sealed her own fate.

Deep in Tartarus, the king and queen of the Underworld ruled together, keenly aware of their responsibilities. And most unexpectedly, flowers bloomed along the banks of the River Styx.

**Author's Note:**

> This picture of Katharine Hepburn was my main inspiration:


End file.
